Responsible Government: Parliament and Cabinet
| Author | Craig Forcese - Aaron Freeman |
| Pages | 349-417 |
349
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Responsible Government:
Parliament and Cabinet
As discussed in Chapter 2, “responsible” government is the means by
which the executive is held structurally accountable to the legislature. In
practice, responsible government hinges on two concepts: first, the min-
istry is usually expected to exert “command and control” authority over un-
elected officials. In the words of Governor General Earl Grey: “[A]ll holders
of permanent offices must be subordinate to some minister responsible to
parliament.”1 Thus, as discussed at various points in this book, the Governor
General generally acts only on the advice of the prime minister or Cabinet.
Meanwhile, as is explored in greater detail below, departments and agen-
cies of the public administration of Canada report to ministers. Second,
these same ministers are accountable to Parliament, both individually and
collectively as members of Cabinet. In this fashion, parliamentarians have
ultimate responsibility for the governance of the country, through the proxy
of ministers. In this chapter, we explore both of these aspects of responsible
government. We begin by examining Cabinet’s role in executive governance.
We then highlight Parliament’s function in overseeing that executive.
A. CABINET’S ROLE IN EXECUTIVE GOVERNANCE
Cabinet plays a central role in Canadian governance, exercising hierarchical
and structural control over the public administration of Canada. Canadian
1 Cited in Donald Savoie, Breaking the Bargain (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2003) at 32 [Savoie, Breaking the Bargain].
LAWS OF GOVERNMENT350
law includes potent measures ensuring that this public administration re-
mains accountable to Cabinet.
1. Cabinet Procedure and Structure
a) Cabinet Purpose and Organization
In the words of the Privy Council Office, Cabinet’s functions include
securing agreement among Ministers on government priorities; secur-
ing agreement on parliamentary actions by the government; providing a
forum for ministerial debate on issues of general interest; providing ad-
equate information to Ministers relative to decisions for which they will be
held collectively responsible and which may impact on their individual re-
sponsibilities; and providing adequate information to the Prime Minister
to carry out his/her responsibilities and his/her leadership role.2
Exactly how Cabinet is structured to do all of this, and how it proceeds,
is mostly the domain of administration and politics, not law. Prime minis-
ters are entitled to organize their Cabinets mostly as they wish, using any
number of different committee structures and delegating various degrees
of decision-making autonomy to these committees.3 As Prof. Donald Savoie
has detailed, these structures and the way in which Cabinet decisions are
made reflect the personalities and priorities of individual prime ministers.4
At the time of this writing, the Harper Cabinet employed eight committees,
as detailed in Table 6.1.5
Table 6.1 Cabinet Committees in the Harper Government
Committee Responsibility
Priorities and Planning Provides “strategic direction on government priorities and
expenditure management, ratifies committee recommendations
and approves appointments.”
Operations Provides “the day-to-day coordination of the implementation of
the government’s agenda, including issues management, legis-
lation and house planning, and communications.”
Treasury Board Responsible for “accountability and ethics, financial, personnel
and administrative management, comptrollership, approving
regulations and most orders-in-council.”
2 Privy Council Office, Information Resources: About Cabinet.
3 See discussion in Donald Savoie, Governing from the Centre (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1999) at 265 [Savoie, Governing from the Centre].
4 Ibid.
5 Privy Council Office, Cabinet Committee Mandates and Membership (2008).
Responsible Government: Parliament and Cabinet 351
Committee Responsibility
Treasury Board (cont’d) Note that the Financial Administration Act legislates some of
Treasury Board’s responsibilities, and thus the prime minister
does not set all of this committee’s mandate.A Ministers in this
committee are appointed by Order-in-Council issued pursuant
to the Act.B
Social Affairs Considers “health care, justice, Aboriginal, training and skills
development, culture, and immigration policy issues.”
Economic Growth and
Long-Term Prosperity
Considers “both sectoral issues including international trade,
sustainable development, natural resources, fisheries, agricul-
ture, transport, infrastructure and communities, and regional
development, as well as longer-term matters concerning
Canada’s economic growth and prosperity.”
Foreign Affairs and
Security
Considers “foreign affairs, international development, public
and national security, and defence policy issues.”
Environment and Energy
Security
Considers “environment and energy security policy issues.”
Afghanistan Considers “issues related to Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.”
A Financial Administration Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. F-11, ss. 5 et seq.
B See, for example, Order-in-Council, 2004-0848 (2004-07-20).
b) Cabinet Solidarity and Confidence
Ministers in Cabinet must act in solidarity — something that has been de-
scribed as an unwritten constitutional convention.6 Solidarity “allows min-
isters to be frank in private but requires them to support the government
in public.”7 Thus, a minister must loyally support and defend any Cabinet
decision, and not suggest that he or she differed with the prevailing view.8
Further, ministers “may speak about government’s policy only after it
has been agreed to in private by their colleagues.”9 A minister may not pub-
licly initiate new policy, absent this prior Cabinet consent. For this same rea-
son, a minister must not make public statements or speeches that appear
to implicate the government.10 To these attributes is added the requirement
that advice given to the Governor General must be unanimous and not re-
flect unsettled disputes within Cabinet.11
6 See, for example, Privy Council Office, Accountable Government: A Guide for Ministers
and Ministers of State (2007).
7 Privy Council Office, Information Resources: About Cabinet.
8 Eugene A. Forsey & G.C. Eglington, The Question of Confidence in Responsible Govern-
ment (Ottawa: Special Committee on the Reform of the House of Commons, 1985) at
84 [Forsey & Eglington, The Question of Confidence].
9 Privy Council Office, Information Resources: About Cabinet.
10 Forsey & Eglington, The Question of Confidence, above note 8 at 84.
11 Andrew Heard, Canadian Constitutional Conventions (Toronto: Oxford University Press,
1991) at 63 [Heard, Canadian Constitutional Conventions]; ibid.
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